There’s a sign to the right of my art desk.

My teenage daughter made it for me, because she felt like it fit me:

“Trust Your Crazy Ideas.”

It shows me a) she thinks I have crazy ideas, and b) some of my crazy ideas must work, or at least not annoy my family too much.

This past year, I trusted a pretty crazy idea: we decided to give up single-use plastic. We are all in.

I won’t go into the process, the reasoning or the details here, but if you want to know more, you can check out The Clean Up Project page, where I post practical tips and information about living with less plastic.

The journey has been pretty amazing, and surprisingly not very difficult despite being completely surrounded by plastic. We were even featured in our local magazine, Homewood Life.

This plastic-free journey has also been full of art. From photographing trash collections we’ve picked up during walks in our neighborhood or on the beach, to creating products to make it easier for people to go plastic free, to discovering a new way of living, art is everywhere.

Sometimes I feel like “doodling” with the plastic we find along our walks, making impermanent pieces of art.

All of it – the lifestyle adjustments, the trash pick-ups, the photos, the documentation, the resources and products, and the random artwork – is because something needs to change. Like the ironic piece of litter I found one afternoon, we have a broken, very plastic planet.

We can all do our part… especially if we trust our crazy ideas.